Choose your Workshops

Thankyou for signing up to this year’s conference, we are really looking forward to seeing you there.

Please see a list of workshops below to choose from. If you can select both a morning and afternoon workshop. All the sessions will be led by Kitemark schools and organisations (with the exception of our friends and character experts from the University of Latvia). There are limited spaces and they will be allocated on a first come first served basis.

Morning Workshops

Workshop led by Harleen K. Assi, Assistant Principal for Character Education, Personal Welfare and Development, Ark Boulton Academy.

This workshop is ideal for schools starting out their journey in introducing character education and will look at how to create an ethos of the moral virtues as a basis for improving the life chances of students, and the communities they live in.

Workshop by Gurdeep Singh, Assistant Headteacher Aylesbury Grammar School.

This workshop shares our journey over the last 6 years. We have moved from the development of character to improve attitudes to learning, to also support our students to acquire the emotional traits they require to flourish. We will share;

  • Challenges faced along the way
  • Getting staff buy in
  • Development through subject delivery, personal development tutor time and linking extra curricular opportunities to character
  • Communication with parents
  • Use of past students and the wider community

Workshop led by John Vennart, Headteacher and Paul Williams, Deputy Headteacher – Pastoral, The Malling School.

The Malling School has been on a transformational journey over the last 2 years to place character at the heart of the school. This workshop will share our journey from applying for the standard School of Character Kitemark to later acquiring Kitemark Plus.

We will share how ACE supported us on this journey and how put character at the centre of the school.

Workshop led by Stuart Wilkinson, Character Lead and Glen Donald, Character lead, Briscoe Lane Academy.

This session will look at the importance of supporting children to develop the practical wisdom to operate in a virtual world. We will share how we teach this through sessions including scenarios and encourage our pupils to learn about character traits such as empathy and compassion. We will also explore the importance of removing the disconnect between behaviour in the real world and the cyber world.

Workshop by Daniel Stockton, Headteacher.

Oak Tree School is an Outstanding Ofsted rated school which provides specialist provision for children and young people aged 7-16 who experience social, emotional, mental health, communication difficulties and associated challenging behaviours. This workshop will share how we put character at the forefront of what we do raising pupil attainment beyond academic achievement.

Workshop by Selena Whitehead, Education Team Manager.

Character isn’t confined to any particular age group – progressive journeys across primary & secondary provide the greatest leverage. A spiralling character curriculum is more impactful than one offs. Amazing People Schools is a whole-school award-winning programme that bring diverse voices into the classroom, embeds the language of character and supports wellbeing.

Free trial access is available www.amazingpeopleschools.com.

Afternoon Workshops

Workshop by Hayley Benfield, Assistant Headteacher, Henley Bank High School.

This workshop focuses on how the same character education programme on taught, sought and caught character can be created for both staff and students.

Workshop by Mark Queen, Character Lead, Steyning Grammar School.

Steyning Grammar School took the bold move to only report on character strengths, and not academic attainment until Year 10. Incredibly we have found this to be more accurate in predicting GCSE outcomes than mock exams. It has also been transformational in re-aligning our priorities in how we educate our pupils. In this workshop we will share the lessons we learnt along the way and why this benefits our students.

Workshop by Carole Black, Deputy Head, Dr Challoner’s Grammar School.

This workshop will share how the school implemented character education using existing strengths to develop an explicit framework. We will also share how we are now using research involving students, staff, parents and alumni to develop and embed character education.

Workshop led by Rachael Fraser, Headteacher and Rebecca Moors, Assistant Head, Woodvale School.

The workshop will outline the way in which our secondary school manages the taught, caught and sought, aspects of character. We will share the accreditation system known as Futures Award. Futures uses an APP that was developed in house, to encourage students’ independent responsibility for the development of their character traits in conjunction with their families, tutors, teachers and peers.

The session will include a brief demonstration of the app and will include the ways in which the award winning app which enables us to analyse student participation by sub group and develop strategies for growing participation in the award and the consequent positive gains for character development across the school.

Workshop led by Dr. Manuels Fernandezs, Senior Researcher, Anna Sidorova, Doctoral student & Teacher and Irina Maslo, Faculty of Education, University of Latvia.

This workshop is led by Dr Manuels Fernandezs (MA Character Education) who will share how the Character curriculum of the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues was transferred to schools in Latvia in partnership with 265 teachers.

We will explore some of the main challenges and solutions to developing this moral online education through the spirit of openness, dialogue, respect and emotional control!

Workshop led by Penny Bryant-Jones, Character Education Lead and Megan Robinson, Headteacher, Elvetham Heath Primary School.

In this workshop we will explore how character education is about ethos. We will also share how we embedded it across all areas of our curriculum.